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Friday, May 29, 2009

Grand Cayman--Diving

With the memory of our meal from the evening before still fresh, we woke to a cloudy rainy morning. Thankfully that sort of thing doesn't last long around here. We finished off the beignets that we'd brought home from the Lighthouse Restaurant last night. Our meal was soooo good. They have a house special that is for two. Appetizer of calamari, shrimp and conch fritters followed by a seafood plate of mahi mahi, shrimp, lobster, salmon and linguine with the creamiest sauce you'd ever want. The dessert, beignets for two, are about 8 fist-sized fried dough balls with cinnamon and a little chocolate sauce and some fresh fruit sprinkled around in a huge stemmed bowl that looks like a giant martini glass. On the side is a fresh strawberry sauce. Way too much to eat but worked well as breakfast this a.m. too.

By the time we left the dock at Ocean Frontiers, the skies were clearing and the sun was out. We headed to the north end of the island and did dives at Barrel Sponge and Roger's reef. The first dive found us looking right into the eyes of a turtle sitting on top of the reef at about 50 feet. Just sat there contemplating life I guess and not the least bothered by our picture taking.

Our second dive site was requested by Bob. Last year at Roger's Reef, we found a seahorse but no such luck this year. We did see quite a few things The best find were some porcupine fish. We love these guys. They look like puppy dogs with their big eyes. This is the first time though we saw one puffed up. He was hiding in some rocks and puffed up with all his spines sticking out. He must have been chased by something. I looked around but didn't see any sharks. We did hear later that someone saw a nurse shark but I don't know that they feed on puffers.

On the bottom we found this sea cucumber as well. He's one of the garbage men of the sea cleaning the sand. The interesting thing about these critters is that their food goes in the same way their waste products come out. We have a smaller cuter one in our aquarium at home but it always grosses out the grandkids when you tell them that.

Lots of good exercise this morning too when the current kicked up a notch as we did our safety stop. Between that and the wind shifting the boat above us, we had to "run" to catch up.